Grease-cup.



C. M. ROURK.

GREASE CUP.

APPLiCATlON FILED MAY 12. 1915.

1 w Patented A r. 30, I918.

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To all whom it may comm.

' Be it known that I, CLARA M. ROURK, a citizen of the United States residing at Bridgeport, in the county of Fairfield and State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in' Grease 'Cups, of which'the following is a specification. H V This invention relates to grease cups, the object of the inventionbeing to provide an I improved grease cup in which the dificulty of unscrewing the cup when it is necessary to V refill it is eliminated, and to accomplish this bythe provision of an extremely simple and efficient means for locking or holding the lower half of the cup in place while the cupis being unscrewed. V

In the drawings accompanying and forming part of this specification, Figure 1 is a sectional elevation of a grease cup having my improvement applied thereto; Fig. 2 is a view similar to Fig.1, showing the cup completely (screwed sectional view taken on line 3 3, Fig. 2 Fig. 4 is a view similar to Fig. 3, but showing the lower cup member turned to its locking position on the hexagonal shank; Fig. 5 is a perspective view"showing the cooperating ratchet edges of theupper and lower shells forming the cup; and Fig. 6 is afragmentary view illustratimgg; in full lines the irregular hole in the inner or lower shell of the cup, the shank being shown in dotted lines.

Similar characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the different figures of the drawing.

r In grease cupsprovided with a ratchet locking device, the cup usually consists of an upper member or cap 2, which is internally threaded for the reception of the enlarged threaded head- 3 of a hexagonal shank 4, the shank being threaded at its opposite end 5 forconnectlon with the bearing which is to cap 2 is 'further provided with a ratchet formed lower edge 6,

Fig. 5, the purposeof which will beeX- plained hereinafter, and at its opposite'end with a knurled rim 7 and a projection or lug 8 extending across the end thereof for conveniently grasping and turning said cap.

, Mounted for sliding movement on the hexagonal shank 4 is thelower member or shell 9 ofthe cup, and within this shell 9 is carried a second shell 10 rigidly connected to was shell 9, the shell 10 being of the same down; Fig.3 is a cross-c the inner shell having the usual hexagonal opening corresponding withthe opening of FatentedApr.30,1919,

Application filed May 12, 1915. 'Seria11 T0. 27, 505.

diameter as the cap 2 and having a ratchet formed upper edge" cooperating with the lower'e'dge 6 of the cap 2. The double shell 9, 10 is held toward the cap 2 by means of a coil spring 11 encircling the hexagonal shank 4 and having one end secured to the inner shell 10 and its opposite end fastened within the head 3 01 the shank 1; By reason ofthis construction [the members 2 and 10 of the cup are. held with their co operating ratchet formed edges in engage ment thereby preventing the turning back of the cap 2 and loss thereof caused by vibration or jarring ofthebearing on which it is placed. In the construction so far described, it is difiicult to remove the cap- 2 for the purpose of refilling, by reason ofthe fact that the spring 11 keeps the cooperating ratchet edges of the members 2 and 10 in engagement and therefore the cap 2 cannot be turned to unscrew the. same except by holding down-the lower member 9 against the tension oi the spring. H p p The present improvement is intended to provide a simple and effective means for holding the lower member 1001 the cup away fromthecap 2, thereby to permit the same to be unscrewed without difficulty, and for this purpose, in the preferred form shown, ll provide a groove 12 around the hexagonal shankl near the smaller end, or i at that point where the edge 15 of the lower shell 9 comes when the cap is screwed all the way down. The hole 16 in the outer shell?) is made to correspondto the shape "of the but the hole 17 in the inner shell is irregular in shape, as shown in Fig. 6; that is to say,

the outer shell is cut away to form a number of additional angles in the edge thereof. Assuming that the cap has beenscrewedall the. way down and it is desired to refill the 100 Tcup, the lower shell 9 of the cup is turned on the shank so that its edge 15 is held within thegroove 12 of the hexagonal shank, this groove being only wide enough to acco1nmodate the edge of'but one shell. Thus a105 slight turn or twist of the lower memberof the cup to the left will bring the hexagon sides of the opening in'the outer shell 9 be-I neath the corners or angles of the shank 41, r

as shown by the dotted lines in Fig. 4, but "110 when the angles of the shank have reached about the center of the hexagon sides of the opening in the shell 9 the additionalangles in the opening ofthe inner shell 10 abut against the angles of the shank, as shown in Fig. 6, thereby preventing further turning of the lower shell. The lower shell is thus held from turning by means of these additional angles, while it is held against the tension of the spring 11, which holds the cooperating ratchet devices of the upper and lower inner shells in engagement, thereby permitting the release of the ratchet device and allowing the cap to be easily and quickly unscrewed and taken ofi' for refilling. After removing the cap a slight twist of the lower shell will bring the same back to the point where the angles of the opening in the shell 9 register with those of the shank fl, whereupon the tension of the spring 11 w1ll bring the lower shell to. the proper positlon so that the cooperating ratchet devices w ll engage as soon as the upper shell or cap 2 is replaced and screwed down to the proper point on the shank.

While I have described my invention as applied to what is known as an'invisible ratchet grease cup, it is to be understood that it may also be applied to all ratchet grease cups, whether of an oblong, square, hexagon or other shaped shanks, or whether they have a disk with notches or ridges, or one or more shells; and while I have shown as the preferable construction the'locking device as consisting of a groove in the shank, it is I to be understood that I do not limit myself to this particular construction, since I am fully aware that in place ofthe groove a pm or projection might be used, or a el1 1tch or catch, and I consider these variations 1n structure to be entirely within the purview of ,7 my invention. In short, within the purview of the present improvement is means for permitting the axial movement of the base member or lower shell with the cap during the screwing down or home of the cap, but

preventingfsuch axial movement with the cap when the latter is unscrewed to withdraw or refill the same. In the present improvement this means consists of means which will permit the rotation of, the lower half or base of the cup only at that point on the shank reached by the base member when the cap has been screwed completely down. .I claim as my invention:

1 grease cup comprising a hollow shank, a pair of cup formed shells on said shank, one rotatable on the shank and the other'sliding relatively thereto on the rotation of said rotatable shell, means for holding the shells in operative relation, and

means carried by the shank and sliding shell to permit a limited rotation of the sliding shell at a predetermined time thereby to lock the sliding shell against movement with the mit the refilling of the rotatable shell during the withdrawal of the latter to permit the refilling of the cup and comprising a groove carried by the shank anda pair of spaced portions carried by the sliding shell, one effective to enter said groove and the other formed to limit the rotatable movement of said sliding shell.

2. A grease cup comprising a hollow shank, a pair of cup formed shells on said shank, one rotatable on the shank and the other sliding relatively thereto on the rotation of said rotatable shell, means for holding the shells in operative relation, means carried by the shank and sliding shell to permit a limited rotation of the sliding shell at a predetermined time thereby to lock the sliding shell against movement with the rotatable shell during the withdrawal of the latter to permit the relilling of the cup, said means comprising a groove in the shank adapted to cooperate with an angular edge of the sliding shell, and means carried by said sliding shell for limiting the rotary movement of the latter during the locking thereof and also comprising an angular edge carried by said sliding shell.

3. A grease cup comprising a hollow shank, a pair of cup formed shells on said shank, one rotatable on the shank and the other sliding relatively thereto on the rotation of said rotatable shell, means for holding the shells in operative relation, means carried by the shank and sliding shell to permit a limited rotation of the sliding shell at a predetermined time thereby sliding shell against movement with the rotatable shell during the withdrawal of the latter to permit the refilling of the cup, said means comprising a groove in the shank adapted to cooperate with an angular edge of the sliding shell, and means carried by said sliding shell for limiting the rotary movement of the latter during the locking thereof and also comprising an angular edge carried by said sliding shell, said angular edges being spaced one above the other.

4. A grease cup comprising a hollow shank, a pair of cup formed shells on said shank, one rotatable on the shank and the other sliding relatively thereto on the rotationof said rotatable shell and having a double bottom, means for holding the shells in operative relation, and means carried by the shank and the double bottom of the sliding shell for permitting a limited rotation of the sliding shell thereby to hold the same against movement with the rotatable shell during the withdrawal of the latter to percup.

to lock the 5. A shank, a pair of cup formed shells on said shank, one rotatable on the shank and the other sliding relatively thereto on the rotation of said rotatable shell and having a double bottom, means for holding the shells grease cup comprising a hollow of said sliding shell having an opening cor responding to the side walls of the shank and the inner Wall thereof having'an opening of a different shape.

6. A grease cup comprising a hollow shank, a pair of cup formed shells on said shank, one rotatable on the shank and the other sliding the rotation of said rotatable shell and having a pair of spaced portions, one having an opening corresponding to the side walls of the shank and the other adapted to cooperate with the side walls of the shank to-limit rotary movement of said sliding shell, said shank having a groove for the reception of one of said portions, the construction being such that the sliding shell may have a limited rotary movement relatively to the shank at a predetermined time thereby to lock the sliding shell against movement With the rotatable shell during the withdrawal of the latter to permit the refilling of the cup. I

7. A grease cup comprising a hollow shank having a threaded head. and angular side walls and provided with a groove, an interiorly threaded shell fitting said head and having a ratchet formed edge, a shell slidable on said shank and having a ratchet edge adapted to cooperate with the ratchet edge of the threaded shell, means for holding said ratchet edges in engagement, and an inner shell carried by said slidable shell and having means cooperating with said groove relatively thereto on for permitting separation of said ratchet edges.

8. A grease cup comprising a hollow shank having a'threaded head and angular side walls and provided with a groove, an interiorly threaded shell fitting said head and having a ratchet formed edge, a slidable shell having an opening adapted to fit said shank and provided with a ratchet edge adapted to cooperate with the ratchet edge ofthe threaded shell, means for holding said ratchet edges in engagement, and an inner shell carried by sald slidable shell and having an opening of a different shape from that of the slidable shell and cooperating with said shank for permitting separation of said ratchet edges.

9. A grease cup comprising a hollow shank having a threaded head and angular side Walls and provided with a groove, an interiorly threaded shell fitting said head and having a ratchet formed edge, a slidable double shell having an opening corresponding in shape to the side walls of said shank and an opening of a difierent shape, said double shell also having a ratchet edge adapted to cooperate with the ratchet edge of the threaded shell, a coil spring for holding said ratchet edges in engagement, said groove and double shell cooperating to hold the latter against the tension of said spring thereby to permit separation of said ratchet edges.

Signed at Bridgeport, in the county of Fairfield and State of Connecticut, this 30th day of April, 1915.

CLARA M. ROURK.

Witnesses: V

JoHN F. COLLINS, JOSEPH D; RoURK.

topics or this patent may be obtained for five cents each, hy addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

. 1 Washington, 1!). C. 

